This invention relates to equipment for inverting planate workpieces or other articles, particularly large flat workpieces, such as prefabricated door and window assemblies. This equipment is particularly useful for operations in which the planate workpiece is supported in the horizontal plane for carrying out assembly and other fabrication procedures. Access to the underside of the workpiece is necessary for various procedures and such access is quite difficult without inverting the workpiece so that the other side may be worked on from above. Heretofore, planate articles supported in a horizontal attitude have been inverted by rotation a full 180 degrees about a horizontal axis. Typically, the workpiece is raised above its horizontal support in order to be "flipped" to the other side. However, inverting the article in this fashion requires a large amount of "head room" above the horizontal support, particularly for tall and/or wide planate articles. Typically, the article also must be supported against free fall during rotation and repositioning of it on the support to avoid damage. Such procedures usually require complex and bulky equipment.
There is therefore a need for more efficient procedures and equipment for inverting planate articles.